CVS CVS Value Methodology and Job Plan Questions and Answers 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A project owner asks why the value study includes a Post-Workshop (implementation) stage. The best response is that this stage:
- Ensures approved recommendations are tracked, implemented, and their results documented (Correct answer)
- Repeats the Creativity Phase with a new team
- Replaces the need for a formal presentation
- Verifies the original contract terms only
Correct answer: Ensures approved recommendations are tracked, implemented, and their results documented
Without implementation follow-through, accepted alternatives may never be executed, and the study delivers no realized value.
Question 2: When defining functions using the two-word verb-noun format, which of the following is the correctly stated function for a light bulb filament?
- Generate light (Correct answer)
- Tungsten wire glowing brightly
- Provides an efficient source of home lighting for consumers
- Bright illumination
Correct answer: Generate light
Value methodology requires functions to be expressed as an active verb plus a measurable noun, such as 'generate light.'
Question 3: A value team is studying a bridge design and calculates 'worth' for the function 'span obstacle.' In value methodology, worth is defined as:
- The lowest cost to reliably perform the function (Correct answer)
- The market price of the completed bridge
- The total historical cost of similar bridges
- The contractor's bid amount plus contingency
Correct answer: The lowest cost to reliably perform the function
Worth is the least cost required to perform the basic function, serving as the benchmark against actual cost to reveal value gaps.
Question 4: During the Creativity Phase, one participant repeatedly critiques others' ideas as they are suggested. The facilitator should intervene because:
- Deferring judgment is a ground rule; criticism during ideation suppresses idea quantity and creativity (Correct answer)
- Only the facilitator is permitted to speak during brainstorming
- Criticism is allowed only from certified value specialists
- The phase requires ideas to be evaluated as they are generated
Correct answer: Deferring judgment is a ground rule; criticism during ideation suppresses idea quantity and creativity
Brainstorming rules defer all judgment to the Evaluation Phase so the team can maximize the quantity and range of ideas.
Question 5: A team develops a promising alternative that cuts cost 20% but slightly reduces a required performance attribute below the owner's stated minimum. In the Development Phase, the team should:
- Rework or reject the alternative, since value improvement cannot sacrifice required performance (Correct answer)
- Recommend it anyway because cost savings outweigh everything
- Hide the performance impact in the presentation
- Reclassify the requirement as a secondary function
Correct answer: Rework or reject the alternative, since value improvement cannot sacrifice required performance
Value improvement requires maintaining or improving necessary function and performance, so an alternative violating requirements must be revised or dropped.
Question 6: In pre-workshop preparation, the facilitator gathers cost models, drawings, and performance criteria. The primary purpose of this activity is to:
- Ensure the team starts the workshop with complete, organized information for effective analysis (Correct answer)
- Allow the facilitator to pre-select the final recommendations
- Eliminate the need for the Information Phase
- Shorten the study by skipping function analysis
Correct answer: Ensure the team starts the workshop with complete, organized information for effective analysis
Thorough pre-workshop data collection maximizes workshop productivity but does not replace any Job Plan phase.
Question 7: On a FAST diagram, functions that occur continuously or represent design objectives (such as 'ensure safety') are typically placed:
- Above the critical path as all-the-time or supporting functions (Correct answer)
- To the left of the higher-order function outside the scope line
- On the critical path between the basic function and inputs
- Below the diagram as unwanted functions
Correct answer: Above the critical path as all-the-time or supporting functions
All-the-time functions and design objectives sit above the critical path since they apply across the process rather than in the How-Why sequence.
A project owner asks why the value study includes a Post-Workshop (implementation) stage.
The best response is that this stage: